He was on the short side, with dark hair that curled low over his eyes. He’d had all his jewelry confiscated, of course, but she could see piercings for earrings in both ears and his arms carried colorful tattoos. She sensed some extra tension about him, too – an infantile need for attention. He brought an air of impending disruption into the room with him, like a wet dog getting ready to shake.
Always before an interview, a part of her brain replayed a few sentences from the course she took during her first year in Investigations. Interrogation 101: it’s always your game. Never let them maneuver you into playing their game. She took a deep breath, envisioned dappled shade along Sonoita Creek. You have all the power. Use it wisely.
She liked to go in quietly and give the prisoner a few seconds to get used to her physical presence. Small, neat and harmless was how she figured they read her, and she wanted them to see her that way and relax a little before she talked. She sat down and opened her notebook, waited five seconds, and said, ‘José García, good afternoon.’
‘Call me Joey,’ he said. ‘Everybody does.’ And it was all there, in the voice – the hubris, aggression and self-satisfaction. She might be Ms Kick-Ass Law, in charge of the doors and the locks, but he was in charge of his name and his image, which he clearly viewed as being supremely important.
‘Your legal name is José, though, isn’t it?’
‘Who cares? Everybody that knows me calls me Joey. You come to get me out?’
‘No, that’s not what I do. Actually, I’m not here to talk about your case at all.’
He opened his hands in a gesture of futility and said, ‘What’re we doin’ then?’
‘Three people related to you have met violent deaths in three years, so I’m interviewing everybody in your family. You’re just about last on my list. I went looking for you, and I found you in here.’ Not the whole truth, but close enough.
He frowned, squinted and shook his head. ‘Listen, my family’s got nothing to do with this, understand? I just got into a little misunderstanding with this wimpy little artist fella at his house on Claravista. And then the cop he called to the scene simply wouldn’t listen to reason. Soon as my lawyer gets here we’ll get this all straightened out and I’ll be outta here.’ He made a child’s bye-bye wave.
‘I don’t think it’s going to be quite that easy this time, José. You’re charged with criminal trespass, willful destruction of property …’
‘Will you stop calling me José? Ain’t none of them charges going to matter one bit when my family gets here with the cash. That’s all this system is, see? A big scam to take money away from people.’
‘OK. But while you wait for that to happen, let’s talk about your family. Were you surprised when Frank Martin got accused of stealing money from the credit union , or did you know about that all along?’
‘Shee-it, lady, you gonna ask me how long I been beating my girlfriend, too? I ain’t some peasant lettuce-picker, you know. I grew up right here in Tucson, speak English and everything.’
‘I understand that, José. You knew Ed Lacey for a long time, too, didn’t you? All your life, I guess. Do you have any idea what happened to him? Why would he go off half-cocked like that and shoot at a cop?’
‘No idea,’ Joey said, ‘except maybe he finally came to his senses and realized cops are a bunch of overbearing assholes, so he decided to get rid of one or two.’
‘Ah.’ She closed her notebook. ‘Looks like you’re not quite ready to have this conversation, José. I think it’ll have to wait until you’ve enjoyed Pima County hospitality a while longer.’
‘Better not wait very long, lady. Soon as my bail money gets here I’m history.’
‘Better not count on that any time soon, José. Your mother told me she wasn’t going to pay your bail, and she’s made sure nobody in the family will bring you any money, either.’
‘That so? I think I know my family quite a bit better than you do.’ He made a good show of indifference but she saw a drop of sweat form beneath each eye. ‘Anyway, they ain’t the only friends I got.’
‘Well, good luck with that. But if nobody shows up with cash you’ll have to ask for a court-appointed lawyer, since you decided to plead not guilty – isn’t that going to be a stretch, given that they caught you coming out of the back door with the goods? But since that’s what you’re going for, somebody should warn you that they’re very busy, those pro-bono lawyers. There’s always a waiting list.’